5) Kenting and Little Liouciou Island

The next day (28.10.) we took the train from Hualien to Taitung. We were eager to visit Green Island. Unfortunately, in Taitung we got to know that only one ferry in the morning travels to the island. Thus, we continued by train to Fangliao from where we hopped on a bus to Kenting. An old lady was already waiting at Kenting bus station to bring show us the rooms she had available. Although not too friendly, the room was nice and cheap. We decided to stay for 2 nights. At the evening we enjoyed the huge street market in Kenting. For dinner we went to an Italian restaurant "Amy's", who offered delicious but rather expensive food as well as good, inexpensive drinks. Afterwards we wanted to have some more beers, but most places closed their door. Danny persuaded me to visit a shady gogo-like place. The beer was priced reasonable, while 2 out of 3 dancing girls were nothing but ugly. I disliked the place a lot. Still, Danny persuaded me to have a second beer... when he asked for a third beer I became annoyed and we left.
The next morning (29.10.) I was looking forward to enjoy the famous beach. Unfortunately, swimming was prohibited due to strong currents. Probably due to Taiwan being a volcanic formed island. Notably, the sign seemed to be in place for months or years rather than days. Strong wind blue sand into our faces and made sunbathing unpleasant. We then wanted to rent a motorbike to visit the Kenting National Park. However, almost no one was to rent us a bike as we only had an EU but no international driving license. Luckily, a guy from a shop next to the bus station gave us a bike. We rode to the national park and payed it a visit. Unlike the beach, the park was really nice and we enjoyed it a lot. Good views, I enjoyed the Banyan trees, spider-like looking crabs scared us (mostly me) in the caves and we tried some Tarzan-like swinging at the trees^^ After the park we continued to the light house where we enjoyed some ice cream. The sun was setting and it was already quite dark when we arrived at the famous Sail Rock. There we met Wendy, a super friendly Taiwanese teacher who was doing holiday there too. Back in Kenting we went for dinner where we met Wendy again. She invited us for dinner and also to her home in Tainan. After dinner she had to leave to look after her mother who was traveling with her. And before Tainan, we wanted to visit Little Liouciou Island. Therefore, we took a bus to Dongang in the morning (30.10.).

view over Kenting National Park

Great light in the national park

Trying to be Tarzan :o

nice setting...

Danny surfing a tree^^

Nicely lighted Banyan tree

In Dongang we walked from the bus station to the ferry terminal and somehow were unable to find the terminal. We asked in some office for the way, but no one was capable of speaking English, so we continued. A minute later a guy from the office ran towards us and led us to the terminal. That is super friendly Taiwan! At the terminal we booked a ferry ticket together with a room that turned out to be small and purple but clean^^ On the island we rent bicycles... however, only e-bikes for small Chinese people were available. Still, riding these bikes was a lot of fun once we got used to it. We had a great lunch in town before we went around the island. I was sad that again we saw no nice beach. At least we could watch the sunset :) At the evening we enjoyed several beers at the 7-Eleven, made friends with a cockroaches, dogs and lots of local people^^
The next day (31.10.) I tried to go for a swim again and found the same sign "swimming prohibited". Sad I went back to the hotel, but the owner told me that I may ignore this sign... so I did and enjoyed finally enjoyed my swim. Not a great beach, rather a harbor feeling, but better than nothing. Even did some sunbathing :) Afterwards we took the ferry back to Donggang, catched the Bus to Kaohsiung and from there the train to Tainan...

great lunch at Liouciou

sunset from Liouciou island

setting sun behind a temple at Liouciou